Nestled a few paces from the U.S.-Mexico border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Quitobaquito Springs are a rare freshwater source in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.

Along the southernmost edge of Arizona, where the San Pedro River once flowed freely over the border from its headwaters in Mexico, a 30-foot steel wall slices across the channel.

President Biden has pledged that there will “not be another foot” of the Trump border wall built. But his first weeks in office demand more than stopping construction of the towering barricade that has fueled humanitarian crises and ravaged the desert environment.

Migration is as old as our species. The need to migrate transcends political boundaries, which reflect only the aftermath of the last invasion. It transcends war and other conflicts. And it transcends borders that do not reflect the intricate web of life, families, communities, and human populations.

In mid-July, a group of people gathered for a prayer ceremony at the border between the United States and Mexico in Southern California 50 miles southeast of San Diego. American citizens arrived from the north and Mexican citizens from the south.